This is the first non-European bands sampler. It is almost the same sampler that was posted by Professor Gommel/The Blathering Gommel at the Shite'n'Onions message board. Therefore, I thank him for this. I would also like to thank Will from the Australian band The Rumjacks, for having started the discussion thread "The (various) heavyweights of Japanese Paddy Punk" at the same messageboard. Finally, if you are looking for more information about the japanese scene, please visit www.shitenonions.com and click on the right on Featured Band to read the following article by The Blathering Gommel: "Paddy Punk in Japanese Rustic Stomp Scene"

All the people that read the pogues foraandShite'n'Onions message board will be familiar with the first band: The Cherry Coke$

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Bryan McPherson is a regular performer in the North East. He is known for his intense live performances, as well as insightful, poetic songwriting. He has shared the stage with the likes of rock and roll legend ChuckBerry, The Neighborhoods, Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black 47, H20, and was recently spotted opening up for the DropkickMurphys' at their famed St. Patrick's shows in Boston. This is passionate, acoustic-punk from the heart. Street life, politics, addiction, and moments of beauty, anguish, clarity, and dissent litter the alleys of McPherson's songs. The words are as honest as they are urgent— every second counts!

Bryan was born and raised in Dorchester, a working class neighborhood in Boston. He was inspired at a young age by the raw energy and angst of Punk Rock, as well as the lyrically driven American folk songs of the early 1960's. His first performances were street corners, house parties, and subway stations in Boston's inner city.

His 2007 album, "Fourteen Stories" can be purchased either from cdbaby or from Interpunk.

Bryan is sharing free his brand new album."Street Lights"(2009) is a showcase of new songs and a few oldies, recorded live with an acoustic guitar at Right Turn, a drug treatment center and Art Space. There are 12 new unreleased songs on this. Available now free at gimmesound

This demo has 6 tracks. The first track is a Flogging Molly cover, "Drunken Lullabies" . The second and the third tracks are self-penned songs. The four track is Irish traditional, "The Rising of the Moon", and the last one is a "Dirty Old Town" rendition.

Monday, August 17, 2009

The rock band Enter The Haggis is an energetic Canadian young band with strong Celtic influences that has been playing to full houses on the rock club circuit as well as headlining many Celtic festivals. They are also known for their infectious songwriting and many TV appearances.

This music is fun, exciting, new and full of strong Celtic influences that they think would appeal the visitors of this blog.

To help spread the word about their music, the band is giving away a new iPod Touch loaded with their music. All participants have to do is create a slogan in one sentence or less about the band's energetic music and unapologetic Celtic attitude.

Nyah Fearties were a music band from the village of Lugton, Scotland that created a near-unique brand of anarchic modern folk between the group's formation in 1982 and break-up in 1995.

Combining the rich traditional music and storytelling culture of its native Ayrshire with a jarring punk ethos, madcap humour and improvised acoustic instrumentation (though usually amplified), the band made a significant contribution to the British folk-punk scene of the 1980s and 1990s.

It often tested live audiences with a feedback-laced aural assault more akin to experimental rock groups like Velvet Underground or The Jesus and Mary Chain than an acoustic folk act. In addition Nyah Fearties were known for utilising all manner of improvised and imaginative musical paraphernalia.

Examples of the latter included bashing upturned metal dustbins to create percussion and the use of an archaic gramophone upon which Andy Stewart records were 'scratched' in the style of a hip-hop DJ. When dustbins were unavailable the beat was supplied by band members stomping around in heavy boots.

Nyah Fearties have been described as a kind of hybrid between Celtic folk-punk outfit The Pogues and Glasgow-based industrial music band Test Dept.

Yet this is a somewhat misleading analogy. As Stuart Cosgrove noted in the New Musical Express (March 14, 1987): "The Fearties are more critical than The Pogues, their Scotland is not a place to be eulogised…it's a home whose myths are savagely demolished…they use found percussion but stripped of Test Dept's artiness…"

Nyah Fearties had at its core the brothers Stephen Wiseman and David Wiseman, although the pair were often joined - both in recorded and live performance - by a wide and varying ad-hoc circle of guest musicians, friends and acquaintances.

The band were championed by, among others, The Pogues whom they supported on a tour of France after an impromptu 1986 pavement audition outside the Devonshire Arms pub in Camden Town, London. In addition, Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken made a cameo vocal appearance on Nyah Fearties debut album "A Tasty Heidfu' " recorded that same year.

During a 13-year career Nyah Fearties barely emerged from its underground roots, enjoying little or no commercial success while maintaining a loyal cult following. The band did, however, make a live appearance on primetime British television music programme The Tube and hosted a one-off Lugton Loonie Show for BBC Radio Scotland.

Following Nyah Fearties demise David Wiseman went on to help found a new band Dub Skelper while more recently the Wiseman brothers were reunited in yet another musical project Junkman's Choir. Both of these groups have released their own studio material.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Men They Couldn't Hang (TMTCH) are a British rock band whose mixture of folk and punk is not dissimilar to that of The Pogues (in fact founder member Shanne Bradley was an original female punk artist and founder of Shane MacGowan's first band, The Nipple Erectors).

Their first single, "The Green Fields of France", was released in 1984. Written by Eric Bogle (of "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" fame), the song's protagonist imagined having a conversation with one of the fallen soldiers of World War I whilst sitting by his graveside. It received considerable airplay on the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1 and finished at No.3 in Peel's Festive 50 for that year. It became a big hit on the UK Indie Chart.

The following year they were signed by Elvis Costello to his Demon label, and released their debut album, Night of a Thousand Candles, and its accompanying single "Ironmasters", a self-penned number by main songwriter Simmonds, linking the Industrial Revolution to the present-day treatment of the working class. The original final line of the song - "and oh, that iron bastard, she still gets her way" (a reference to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) had to be removed for the single version to ensure radio airplay. They were again named in Peel's yearly Festive 50, this time at No.11. They followed this up with a new single not taken from the album, "Greenback Dollar", a cover of the song written by Hoyt Axton and made famous by The Kingston Trio. The single was produced by Nick Lowe.

In 1985 the band signed for MCA records and released How Green Is The Valley. The record included "Ghosts Of Cable Street", a political number concerning The Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and "Shirt Of Blue", which regarded the miners' strike of 1984-5. At the end of promotion for the album Shanne Bradley left to create music with Wreckless Eric and The Chicken Family, she was replaced on bass by Ricky McGuire (ex UK Subs).

In 1987 the band switched to Magnet Records and the new record released was, what many fans consider their best Waiting For Bonaparte. Once again the strongest songs were stories of historical origin. "The Colours" told of an English mutineer sailor during the Napoleonic War and "The Crest" a stretcher bearer during World War II. Sadly whilst "The Colours" was at no.61 in the British top 75 it was blacklisted by BBC Radio 1 due to the line "You've Come Here To Watch Me Hang", which echoed the events happening in South African townships at the time. However it didn't stop the album propelling the group to stardom in Europe.